


If Hamlet were King?

by tapkaJohnD



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-13 22:40:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16027448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tapkaJohnD/pseuds/tapkaJohnD
Summary: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, should succeed his father, yet his uncle Claudius has been crowned.    Hamlet does refer, briefly to an election process that was extant in Denmark at the time, but usually just confirmed primogeniture.  So what if Hamlet had been crowned King?   Let’s imagine….





	If Hamlet were King?

Claudius has killed Hamlet senior, and is having an affair with Gertrude, his mother. But with Hamlet king, they fear for their lives, leave Denmark and are secretly married. That was why the deed was done, not to usurp the crown.  
Ophelia is in love with Hamlet, and he with her, but Hamlet needs to make amends with powerful and aggrieved Norway, whose king his father killed and whose lands he took. He seeks a dynastic marriage with the Norwegian Princess, Fortinbrasse, so that Ophelia, in disappointment and despair, kills herself.  
Polonius, the courtier and Ophelia’s father, feels Hamlet has betrayed his daughter (opportunity for did they/didn’t they sub-plot) and conspires with his son Laertes to kill Hamlet.  
Hamlet, meanwhile, has persuaded Claudius and Gertrude to return, promising safe conduct, but in fact meaning to kill his uncle ("To be or not to be"). On the guilty couple’s return, Polonius sees through his murderous intent and warning Claudius recruits him into his own plot. They plan for Laertes, who has been away in Paris, to return and confront Hamlet, accusing him of betraying his sister and challenging him to a duel. But Hamlet is a skilled swordsman, and Claudius suggests a poisoned blade.  
On the day of the fight, Hamlet has arranged a poisoned drink for Claudius’, but his ditzy mother unknowingly drinks it in his honour. Hamlet, now in berserker mode, takes on both Laertes and Claudius, kills the latter, is wounded by Laertes' poisonous sword, but fatally wounds Laertes. As he dies, Laertes gloats that he has killed Hamlet, and reveals that Polonius was the prime mover in the plot. Polonius, old and infirm, cannot escape the vengeful if weakened Hamlet who kills him for his duplicity (How now! A rat!)

Fortinbrasse arrives for her wedding, keen to be married, but is greeted by Horatio, Hamlet’s surviving friend and confidant,  
“I am more ancient Roman than a Dane  
So cracks this noble heart. Good night, sweet princess,  
The rest is silence....."

So the end is no different if Hamlet were King.


End file.
